Coimbatore: The forest department has arrested four people for cooking and eating sambar deer meat in Valparai and fined them Rs 1 lakh.
Coimbatore: The forest department has arrested four people for cooking and eating sambar deer meat in Valparai and fined them Rs 1 lakh.
The Anaimalai Tiger Reserve in Valparai, Coimbatore district is home to a large number of wildlife including elephants, tigers, bears and deer. Of these, leopards, tigers, and wolves often hunt and kill deer for their food. It is customary for them to leave the rest of the meat to come back to eat. In this condition some of the public who saw this meat used to take them and cook them at home.
After the Valparai area was converted into the Anaimalai Tiger Reserve, the meat was banned from being taken and eaten. In this situation, the forest department was informed that a few persons had taken the deer meat left by the animals at the Tata Coffee Tea Estate in Valparai and cooked it and ate it.
Following this, on the orders of Anaimalai Tiger Reserve Deputy Director Arokkiyaraj Xavier, Valparai Wildlife Sanctuary Jayachandran, Wilder Muniandi Sakthivel and Wildlife Conservation Police rushed to the spot and conducted an investigation.
During the investigation, it was revealed that Selvaraj, Chinnaswamy, Yelumalai and Ramkumar from Varadu Parai were involved in the incident. They subsequently arrested 4 people. Sambar deer meat, its head, skin and legs were recovered from them after interrogation.
The four were fined Rs. 25,000 each at the rate of Rs. 25,000 each on the orders of the Anaimalai Tiger Reserve Deputy Director. The forest department has warned that stern legal action will be taken against those involved in such incidents.